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Traction Power Stations

Discussion related to DC area passenger rail services from Northern Virginia to Baltimore, MD. Includes Light Rail and Baltimore Subway.

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Traction Power Stations

  by farecard
 
Got to thinking about traction power stations.
I found a list:
Code: Select all
6111 Editors Park Drive 
5022 E. Capitol Street SE 
800 Gallatin Street NE 
102 Addison Road South 
4535 Albion Road 
3107 Eisenhower Ave 
7425 Leighton Drive 
3360R Pennsy Drive 
2039 Belmont Road NW 
7450 Wisconsin Avenue
5700 Capital Gateway Drive
4500 John McCormack Road, NE 
3965 Eisenhower Avenue 
5502 Davey Street 
2740 Cedar Lane 
5115 Pierce Avenue 
828 Rockville Pike 
6725 Osbourne Street 
3920 Benning Road, NE 
920 N. Frederick Street 
2704 Gallows Road 
12750 Layhill Road 
1A Grant Circle NW 
5801 Sunnyside Avenue 
6771 Frontier Drive 
10601 Rockville Pike 
11815 Georgia Avenue 
321 Hungerford Drive 
6901 Old Landover Road 
1904 Landsdowne Way 
703 Harry S. Truman Drive, North 
New Carrolton Yard 
4300 Garden City Drive 
5790 2nd Street NE 
601 T St, NE 
5101 Pooks Hill Road 
2500 8th Place, NE
1400 Fairfax Drive 
15901R Somerville Drive 
15903 Somerville Drive 
601 Army Navy Drive 
1403 East West Highway 
1911 Southern Avenue 
301 21st Street, NE 
507 Fern Street, NW 
6175 Fleet Road 
1616 Chapman Avenue 
1001 Jefferson Davis Highway 
2701 Virginia, Avenue 
7251 Idylwood Road
And some specs that say they are either 7or 9 MW; and PEPCO feeds are at 13,800v, while "DVP" does so at 34500V. I assume that's Dominion Virginia Power aka VEPCO.

What I don't see is any mention of BG&E. Surely New Carrolton's in their territory....??

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Mainland
 
It's close, but not quite. The Pepco/BG&E service border runs along the OL/NE corridor tracks for a time from around Landover to New Carrollton, with north of the tracks being Pepco and south BG&E.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Sand Box John
 
There was discussion that BG&E would be a supplier of electricity to WMATA along the D Route Orange line In Prince Georgia's County back in the late 1960s. It was never explained to my why PEPCO became the sole supplier in Maryland. Me thinks WMATA fed their substations from the PEPCO grid because their infrastructure could better handle the loads and they would not have to contract with a different utility to supply power to only a couple of substations.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by farecard
 
Sand Box John wrote: Me thinks WMATA fed their substations from the PEPCO grid because their infrastructure could better handle the loads and they would not have to contract with a different utility to supply power to only a couple of substations.

Well, PEPPC insists on feeding even big customers at 13KV; other PoCo's seem more flexible. I'd a thunk that a major shopping mall, a notorious hog, might be fed at higher voltage; but the only above-13KV PEPCO lines I've spotted are their 33KV & 69KV feeders to/between substations.

I tend to think the 2nd half of your sentence was the issue; it was easier to deal with just one.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Sand Box John
 
I really don't think the feed voltage was an issue in WMATA's decision to go with PEPCO. Over here in the Sand Box, Delmarva Power, which happens to be a subsidiary of PEPCO, distributes power on their local primaries at voltages ranging from 12.6 to 25 KV. But then their grid is integrated with the grids of Choptank Electric Cooperative and the various municipal electric utilities.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by farecard
 
BTW, I asked around & while no traction stations are fed by BGE; turns out WMATA paid big bucks to have Hechingers err Carmen Turner Facility fed from BGE as well as PEPCO.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Sand Box John
 
"farecard"
BTW, I asked around & while no traction stations are fed by BGE; turns out WMATA paid big bucks to have Hechingers err Carmen Turner Facility fed from BGE as well as PEPCO.

That make sense, considering the second Operations Control Center is on that property.

I believe I have mentioned it in this forum before, All of the electrical loads on the railroad get power from the power companies over 2 separate paths. This applies to traction power, stations and other way side loads. In a few cases the separate paths are connected to different up stream utility substations.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by farecard
 
Sand Box John wrote: That make sense, considering the second Operations Control Center is on that property.
Actually the primary OCC now; the JCB one still exists but is gathering dust.
I believe I have mentioned it in this forum before, All of the electrical loads on the railroad get power from the power companies over 2 separate paths. This applies to traction power, stations and other way side loads. In a few cases the separate paths are connected to different up stream utility substations.
The degree of diversity matters, and that's something customers usually have very little control over. The CTF is a best-case, and WMATA was willing to pay a lot for it. But 2 feeds out the opposite ends of a building may well not help at all.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Sand Box John
 
"farecard"

The degree of diversity matters, and that's something customers usually have very little control over. The CTF is a best-case, and WMATA was willing to pay a lot for it. But 2 feeds out the opposite ends of a building may well not help at all.

The redundancy is primarily there in the event there is a fault one of the feeds. Some of the feeds are dedicated some are not. I know for a fact that at least one of the feeds going into the Belmont Street traction power substation is dedicated. Dedicated meaning the feed was constructed at the time the traction power substation was built and there are no other customers drawing power from it.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by farecard
 
It's important to know that while losing a traction power station is not good, but it also is not fatal to running of a line. Basically, the outputs are all in parallel, interconnected at "tie breakers" & the third rail. Losing a station means there is less total power, but does not mean one line segment is dark. It will mean trains can not be as frequent nor run as fast...

I recall the DC blackout in Jan 1992. While the station were lit by battery lighting, and the faregates locked open; I took a Red Line home that night. There must have been multiple power stations off-line that night.

Re: Traction Power Stations

  by Mainland
 
Thought this might be interesting to some, and this is the only thread I recall talking about power supply...so here goes:

Procurement of Electricity Supply for DC & MD
http://www.wmata.com/business/procureme ... on_id=3115" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's just an invitation for bid, not a full RFP, but there are some interesting power use projections toward the end of the word doc for both DC and MD.

*Edit: After digging a little more it looks like this is part of a normal bid process, last done a few years ago - but still, interesting
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